Advertisement

Football: East Lake beats St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park for playoff spot

 
East Lake defensive end Logan Moleni, right, celebrates with teammate Cedric Frierson after the Eagles defeat Pinellas Park in a one-quarter tiebreaker.
East Lake defensive end Logan Moleni, right, celebrates with teammate Cedric Frierson after the Eagles defeat Pinellas Park in a one-quarter tiebreaker.
Published Nov. 3, 2015

PINELLAS PARK — For the past several seasons, East Lake has had a straight forward path to the playoffs. The Eagles pretty much hammered opponents in the regular season and eased into the postseason.

This year it took much more effort.

East Lake (5-4) lost to Class 7A-10 champion Countryside Friday night, which forced a three-way tie breaker on Monday with St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park. The Eagles used two big defensive plays to top St. Petersburg 15-8 in the first 12-minute quarter. They then had another big stand against Pinellas Park and won 7-3 to earn the second playoff spot in the district.

It is East Lake's seventh straight playoff berth.

"It took us the most work to get there, I will say that," East Lake coach Bob Hudson said. "To come back and beat a St. Pete team that beat us — granted, it was just a quarter (Monday), but still it was big. Then we had to beat a fresh team in Pinellas Park in the second quarter. Hats off to my guys and the coaching staff for getting ready to play two different teams like that."

East Lake started with a bang against St. Petersburg. On the second play, quarterback Robert Goldinak hit Jake Hansen on a 10-yard out pass. Hansen then turned outside and ran 77 yards for a touchdown. St. Petersburg came right back when Darius Miller caught an inside screen from quarterback Jon Washington and ran untouched for an 83-yard touchdown. The Green Devils went for two and made the score 8-7.

East Lake came back with an eight-play drive that ended on a 4-yard run by Michael Del Duca. East Lake converted its 2-point play and led 15-8. St. Petersburg came right back when it converted on third and 20 when Miller caught a screen pass. Miller cut left and darted toward the end zone. He was chased down by Josh Bowers on the 10 yard line.

Three plays later, on third and goal from the 1 with just more than a minute to play, St. Petersburg fumbled and East Lake recovered.

"That was a huge play by Bowers," Hudson said. "He could've given up and just let him score. But he chased him down and gave us a chance."

That stand set up a quarter against Pinellas Park. The Patriots (7-2) got the ball first and used up 11 plays and more than six minutes to set up Zack Traynor's 28-yard field goal. East Lake then ate up eight plays before Xavier Jackson's 4-yard touchdown run.

Pinellas Park fumbled on the second play of its next drive, but held East Lake on downs and took over at its 20 with just over a minute to play. After reaching the 40, the Patriots faced fourth and 10. Quarterback Nick Hernandez hit Makel Calhoun on the right sideline. Calhoun fought to get a first down, but after a measurement he was inches short.

Stay updated on Tampa Bay’s sports scene

Subscribe to our free Sports Today newsletter

We’ll send you news and analysis on the Bucs, Lightning, Rays and Florida’s college football teams every day.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

East Lake ran out the clock and extended its season by at least a week. The Eagles play Nov. 13 at Plant City.

"That was crazy," Del Duca said. "After we lost to St. Pete (in the regular season) we've been ending every practice by saying 'Finish.' We worked very hard so we could finish in games like this. Basically we had two games tonight that were like a two-minute drill and we came through."